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To support the global economic recovery, Visa alters its plans to change swipe fees, which would affect various categories of retailers differently, with either lower or higher swipe fees.
The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact on consumers and businesses in the U.S. and the world. Many credit card issuers and lenders started providing special programs to help consumers during this difficult time. And one of the biggest payment processing companies - Visa Inc. - is not an exception.
Earlier this year, Visa announced its plans to change rates that merchants pay to accept cards, aka swipe fees. Visa planned to implement the changes in two stages: in April and October this year. However, due to the current crisis, the company decided to delay those changes for a year moving the date to April 2021.
The exception is the planned interchange reductions in the supermarket segment will go forward. We believe this is the right decision to ensure the long-term stability of the digital payments ecosystem," according to the company's update.
The U.S. gas station owners will also have more time to upgrade their payment terminals to be able to take EMV chip and contactless payments. The deadline has been extended to April 2021 as well.